Tom McArthur and Young take Anglesey titles in super-close finale

The 2018 BRSCC Star of Anglesey titles were taken by Tom McArthur and Brian Young after dramatic final FF1600 races of the year at the Welsh circuit.

Two teenagers made a big impact on proceedings. Young Racing Driver Academy member Tommy Foster made his third FF1600 appearance with Oldfield Motorsport, while British Formula 4 midfielder Jamie Sharp drove Niall Murray’s National FF1600 title-winning car for Team Dolan.

It was Foster who struck first, taking the first pole of his car racing career by 0.142 seconds over Jake Byrne. B-M Racing’s brothers Tom and David McArthur were also within two tenths of Foster.

Byrne beat Foster off the line in race one, but Foster stayed on the Irishman’s gearbox and reclaimed a lead he wasn’t to lose on lap nine of 13 with Byrne finishing runner-up. Their battling also kept the McArthurs in play, with Tom leading David just behind in third and fourth places respectively. Sharp, in his first FF1600 race, completed the top five.

Alaric Gordon, the Post-’89 championship leader heading into the round, only completed four laps. He clashed with Andrew Thomas at the first corner, then after a few laps felt his engine was “tightening up” and turned it off to avoid “a catastrophic failure”. His lead over Tom McArthur was therefore reduced to 12 points, but more importantly he opted out of starting the second race, putting the championship battle on a knife edge.

Further back the battle for race one Pre-’90 honours was won by Brian Young. Sarchet finished second behind him, meaning the pair went into the final race to decide that title.

Foster’s win put him on pole for race two, but he once again lost the lead to Byrne at the start and this time dropped to fourth. Sharp demoted him to fifth on lap four, the back of the lead group.

Midway through the race, Tom McArthur passed Byrne for the lead, with a mistake by David McArthur putting Sharp into third on the same lap. A lap later David took second place from Byrne and he then hassled brother Tom to the flag, with the pair separated by just 0.157s as they crossed the line. Foster got back into third, and also got himself involved with the lead battle.

Victory for Tom McArthur delivered him the Post-’89 title. In the Pre-’90 championship fight Sarchet and Young were inseparable in what was a battle for sixth place in the race overall, until Oldfield Motorsport’s FF1600 returnee Davide Meloni got involved on the last lap.

The San Marino driver passed both, leaving the title rivals battling out of the final corner. Sarchet took seventh place by 0.182s but nevertheless Young’s result following him home, combined with him taking class pole as well as class fastest lap in both races, was enough to take the title.

A previous version of this article stated incorrectly that Mario Sarchet was 2018 Pre90 Star of Anglesey champion rather than Brian Young. This was due to a calculation error on our part. FF1600website apologises for this error.